The "disk" next to the bomb test site is just a meteorological surveillance

Yesterday, the "heavenly dishes" lifted the army into the air for several hours before an army officer explained that what his colleague thought was a "flying disk" was nothing more than a battered army weather balloon.

This denouement closed the chapter about New Mexico in the "flying saucer" saga, to which contributions from 43 other states of the Union, as well as from Australia, England, South Africa, Mexico and Canada, have already been made.

However, none of the previous or subsequent reports of strange heavenly bodies created as much confusion as the startling announcement from an Army lieutenant that a "flying disk" had been found on a ranch near Roswell, N. M., near the scene of atomic bomb tests. The officer, Lieut. Warren Haught [Walter Haut], public information officer of the Roswell Army Air Field, made no bones about the discovery in his detailed report as carried by The Associated Press.

"Many rumors about the flying disk have become reality," he began his statement. He told which intelligence department of which bomber group of the 8th Air Army handed over the "flying disk" "to the higher headquarters".

Then the phones rang between Washington and New Mexico, and the "disk" was on its way to showing how to square a circle. One by one, as the rank of the investigator increased, the circle lost its arcs and developed on the sides until it became approximately octagonal.

An hour after Lieutenant Haut gave a new impetus to the flying saucer derby, his boss Brig. General Roger Ramey had a slightly different version of the "flying disk".

He said that while it is true that he was found at the ranch, no one saw him in the air; it was of "flimsy construction", obviously made "of some kind of tin foil". It was subsequently reported that he was taken to a research laboratory in Wright Field, Ohio.

In Washington, Lieutenant. The deputy chief of the Air Force, General Hoyt Vandenberg, hurried to the press service of his headquarters. The capital's atomic energy specialists were sure that everything that was found was not their business, but it seems that no one knew how to get rid of this object.

Finally, the humble warrant officer Irving Newton, a forecaster at the weather station in Fort Worth, Texas, solved the riddle. He said that this is just part of the weather probe, which is used by eighty weather stations in the country to determine the speed and direction of the wind at high altitudes.

A few hours before the mystery of New Mexico was revealed, a Canadian meteorologist offered the same answer in connection with rumors of "flying saucers" in Circleville, Ohio. This happened shortly after a couple from an Ohio city solemnly proclaimed the "capture" of a mysterious disk.

However, the Midwest was spurred on by its hunt, offering a reward of $ 3,000 for "proof" that America had not succumbed to the epidemic of hallucinations. One of the first contenders for the prize was a seller from Iowa, who produced a steel disc with a diameter of almost seven inches. He said he found him in his yard in the morning after hearing him "fall through the trees." According to The United Press, reporters considered the disc to be walking out of an ashtray.

Then there was a Nebraska farmer who added a bucolic touch to the story. He said that the heavenly bodies were "flaming straw hats" that circled in the night, sometimes stopping to rest.

On that day, the Michigan employee was a toolmaker from Pontiac. According to The United Press, he gave the newspapers a photo showing two round objects on a black background. The inspection showed holes in the disks.

Also in action was Wisconsin, where it was reported that on Monday 250 pilots of the civil air patrol of this state will fly out in search of"flying saucers".

Evidence that the" flying saucers " were not local to the United States and Canada began to arrive in the late afternoon. Two residents of Johannesburg, South Africa, said, according to Reuters, that they not only saw the objects, but also that they " moved with great speed in the shape of the letter V and disappeared in a cloud of smoke."

In England, the wife of a priest, who said she kept her discovery a secret for fear of ridicule, finally came forward yesterday with a story about a "dark ring with clearly defined edges" that swept across the sky on Monday.

The Australian versions of the" flying saucer", which were reported by six people in Sydney, were quite common. Observers said they were slightly brighter than the moon, preferred an altitude of about 10,000 feet and were moving quite fast.

Perhaps it was the weather, but the only hint of "flying saucers" in New York were a few skeptical remarks by Admiral William Blundy, Commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet. The admiral said, answering questions:

"I remain convinced that such things exist. I am convinced that they have nothing to do with the army and navy. I, like everyone else, am curious to see what is behind this."